Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, to the House. I wish him continued success in the Department at a very challenging time. I had the honour of serving with his father, former Deputy Seán Calleary, who was a Minister of State with me in Government, and he acquitted himself exceedingly well in the Departments in which he served.

I welcome this opportunity for a calm debate on the OECD and IMF reports on the Irish economy. Very positive contributions have been made to this debate. The IMF document is very comprehensive and we can selectively quote from it. On page 3 it states:

As the global turmoil has unfolded, Ireland has benefited from the safety provided by its membership in the eurozone. This has allowed it to avoid the currency pressures that typically accompany financial crises. Moreover, access to ECB financing has been an important source of liquidity for the banking sector. However, since the possibility of adjusting through the depreciation of its own exchange rate is not available, further wage reductions will be required to restore competitiveness and growth prospects.

The Irish authorities have moved with resolve to counter the severe economic and financial shocks - that resolve will need to be sustained.

The report supports the establishment of NAMA. The reports are realistic and appropriate.

During the past two weeks I have mentioned and gone through the manifestos of Fine Gael and the Labour Party and I have got a copy of Protecting the Progress: An Agreed Agenda on Tax and Jobs, the joint Fine Gael and Labour manifesto that was issued before the last general election. I raise this in the context that two years ago nobody predicted the slump in the world economies, particularly through the demise of Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. All those financial troubles that occurred had a major impact on this economy.

In its 2007 manifesto at the last general election, Fine Gael sought to sell its wares through a lucky bag of slashing stamp duty, cutting taxes, abolishing excise duty and introducing further tax reliefs. I sometimes wonder where Fine Gael was thinking of sourcing funds to keep the country going at that time. Fine Gael gave no indication of difficulties arising in the Irish economy. There is a type of retrospective rewriting of history in this regard and somehow Fine Gael is now saying it told us so. Fine Gael did not tell us so in 2007.